Kerala's Mohammed Afsal wins gold medal in 800m at European exposure trip in UK

Reliance Foundation athlete Mohammed Afsal bags a gold medal in the men's 800m race in a European exposure trip in the UK. Competing at the Watford Open Graded Meeting on Wednesday, Afsal was the first one to cross the finishing line in the final clocking a timing of 1:48.83 secs.

The 26-year-old from Palakkad in Kerala was contesting in the finals among a field of nine sprinters, where the rest of the athletes were from the UK. He finished the race 2 seconds ahead of runners-up Ben Murphy from Tonbridge (1:50.21) and third-placed Thomas Niner of Brighton & Hove (1:50.50)

Afsal is currently the second-best 800m sprinter of the season in India who achieved his personal best timing (in 2021-22) of 1:47.45 at the Federation Cup in April. He is preceded by Krishan Kumar, who finished first in the same race with a timing of 1:47.43.

Apart from Afsal, another Reliance Foundation athlete Sawan Barwal finished 6th in the Watford meet in the men's 1500m final. He clocked a timing of 3:49.57. It was his personal best effort so far after he finished in the fourth-place in the Inter-Sevices Championships in September 2021 where he had clocked 3:50.16.

Another Indian athlete in the event, Graceson Jeeva won a gold medal in the 110m hurdles warm-ups, where he clocked a timing of 14.57.

The athletes will be looking forward to continuing their brilliant performances in their next exposure meet at the Loughborough International Competition.